CONCEPTUAL PORTRAIT - RADAGAST THE BROWN

I organized a photoshoot where I would recreate the character Radagast the Brown from the Hollywood movie The Hobbit. I’ve always had a soft spot for fantasy books and movies. J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is no exception and is somewhere on the top 3 of my all-time-favorites list. I’ve read the book cover to cover three times and have watched the movies twice. The second time I watched the movie from the perspective of atmosphere and emotion. How is the world depicted in the movies? What does the light look like? Does the color grading add to the atmosphere? I was so inspired that I had to make some images!

One of my all time dreams is to produce a movie poster for some prestigious movie and while a poster for a Hollywood movie would be the climax in my career, reality always kicks in. That will not happen in a while, but I need to start from somewhere! The best way is to practice, practice, rinse and repeat and maybe… just maybe my work will get noticed by some of the movie producers and I get a chance to show that their movie will greatly benefit from my creativity and skills.

For this project, the concept was quite simple: recreate the character Radagast the Brown from the movie with some modifications to the final look and feel. I drew inspiration from the actual movie, but also from movie posters made by the real masters like Nels Israelson. Props and costumes will be made from scratch and from old stuff I received from the Finnish National Opera. The main focus was on the hat and I knew my skills were not up to the task so I asked the talented Noora Hannus to collaborate. When the costumes were ready, all it took were a few trips to the forest to collect some moss, twigs and leaves.. The talent (Mikael Karlbom) was shot (pun intended) in studio, but the background was a collection of images shot in the local woods. I also shot some yellowed leaves separate in studio and incorporated them in the image to give a sense of motion and drama.

So let’s get cracking!

Here is the final edited image:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: JUKKA ALASAARI
Commercial photographer, videographer, retoucher and adventurer from the Nordic country of Finland.